Tuesday 9 September 2008

Please!, Please!, - Turn off Word Verification!!


There is an anti word verification campaign on the go at the moment and I am right behind it especially for us blog hoppers who love visiting as much blogs as possible. Word Verification is such a hindrance and perhaps some people (like myself) didn't realise it was turned on!

Give it a go and see how you get on - Mine has been turned off for months now and I haven't even got comment moderation either (Duh!) until I get loads of spam I'm gonna leave it for now! Here are some ladies comments backing the campaign:

First of all Julie campaigned in April, this is what she had to say on the subject:

Is this necessary?

Why do you enable word verifiction?
I can't read these. I can't. Call me challenged, stupid, an ass, whatever you want...but I'll be honest. I can't read them. I'm done straining my eyes.
Are you afraid of spam? Spam comments? Help your readers. I'm sure everyone would rather you enable moderated comments before word verification. A little spam never hurt anyone, anyway..you can delete it just as easily as the robot sends it to you.

Chris has been continually campaigning and here is what she has to say:

ARGUMENTS AGAINST WORD VERIFICATION
Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.
I think most people don't realise that they have word verification on their blogs by default, or how easy it is to switch it off, and perhaps not realising how annoying it is for other bloggers. Either that, or they’re under the misapprehension that they will be bombarded with spam messages. This is not the case. I’ve had mine switched off now for three of the four months that I’ve been blogging, and have had two spam comments. The responses I’ve had from other bloggers to my earlier posts on this topic back this up. (You can see the comments in response to my previous post on this subject, HERE.)For safety’s sake, have comment moderation on for sure, but please consider canceling word verification on your blog. Maybe for a trial period, and see how you get on.Unless there are thousands of comments being left, comment moderation shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and other bloggers will also be more inclined to leave comments if they can see that you don’t use word verification.However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. We can agree to differ and not visit each other’s blogs! lol ;o)
OK.. rant over. If you have read all the way to the end, thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say something. I love to get around and leave comments, but word verification spoils the experience.
Of course, when I get my new job, all this will be academic to me, as I will then have a life, and I won't have time for much blog-hopping!! Not that blog-hoppers need to get a life.. Errr... think I'll stop digging now, before I get into REAL trouble!! lol ;o)

26 comments:

Rach said...

I havn't got word verification on...I agree with you Dawn...hugs Rachxx

cats whiskers said...

Dawn I so agree with you I turned off Word verification after Kath told us how to didn't even know it was on. Had no problem in the last 3 months.
Thanks it is such a pain when you have poor eyesight
Hugs Jacqui xxx

Joey said...

i think i have turned mine off! i hope i have! lol.x

Roxy said...

I think I'll have to check mine. Haven't a clue if it's on or not. well, if it is, then off it goes.
Blessings!
Roxy

Sue from Oregon said...

here , here!

Lim said...

Dawn. I agree with you. I already turn off the word verification. That save a lot of time.
Thank you for sharing this and explain how to do it.
Hugs,
LIM

Creative Chaos said...

Yesterday I had lots of spam even with word verification , so i might as well turn it off !! :-)
I go and see if i can find out how .
Patti xx

Maria Matter said...

Dawn, so glad I came to your blog! I agree! I'll have to look if I have mine turned on! Thanks!
Love your blog!!!
Blessings, Maria

Sherry said...

I hate word verification on blogs!! It seems like I never get it typed in right the first time. It is such a waste of my time!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
Sherry

Rosie said...

I hate WV too! But I do struggle and comment on those blogs who have it because the blogger concerned took the trouble to leave me a comment in the first place. I detest it though. I have comment moderation on wordpress and Akismet catches spam for the most part. Saves a lot of hassle from the jerk-offs!

CraftyC said...

And I did just that! It does waste time and can be quite frustrating, never had a problem with dodgy comments.......Also, I turned my music off as well today, sick of hearing the same thing every time in went.
Clairex

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Thanks, Dawn!! This is brilliant! :o) That's eight entries in my blog candy draw for you, mrs! Best wishes with that!

Chris xx

Unknown said...

I was just thinking the other day, "I feel really stupid when I keep entering the word verification and after a while the letters are separated and easy to read like the word verification just gave up on me." I will have to take mine off. I think at first you are so worried about weird things on your blog and then after blogging for a while you just want visitors. Cathy

Anonymous said...

All of those blind people using screen readers to use their computer thank you. It is impossible to use word verification as by definition it cannot be read by a computer. This takes away the opportunity to participate in the community of the internet. Thanks

Katie said...

Hiya Dawn
I turned mine off this morning after visiting Sheila 'Manic Stamper'.
It drives me nuts because it takes so long to leave a comment. Cuts down on you blog hoppping time and quite often I can't decipher the letters and yes this could be due to my age but I really don't think it is LOL. Moderation is enough of a safeguard for the loonies that may be out there. Spam is a way of life unfortunately you just have to deal with it. If I had a pound for every Viagra email I've had sent to my email box I'd be a rich woman!!!

Katie
x

Hanne said...

Hi Dawn,
i really agree on this one.
Turned my WV off some months ago, haven't had any problems with spam visitors...

Julie Allain said...

Hi Dawn

I hate word verification too and usually wouldn't have it on but I'm very worried about spammers especially on Inspirational as usually I have comment moderation on and I can't tell you how many times I've won the lottery....and there have been worse spam comments believe me lol

While I'm without a computer (I'm on a borrowed one at mo) I'll keep moderation off and wv on but as soon as I'm back to normal I'll take it off and go back to moderating the comments ;)

I hope you are keeping well

Julie xx

Fe-Fe said...

I quite agree. I've never had it on mine as it drives me nuts when I have to do it on other peoples. It just adds on so much extra time. Bah Humbug!!!

Thank you for converting so many people Dawn!

Hugs
Fe x

Kath Stewart said...

Hi Dawn
Just a little word of warning. if you don't have comment moderation, it's not spam you have to worry about...it's the nasty folk out there who may leave evil comments so I would advise you to have Comment Moderation and then you can delete any s**t before it's goes on your blog.
Love
Kath
xxxxx
Kath

~Emma~ said...

Dawn it drives me nuts...when Chris first mentioned this we did try and get her to go for the PM's job! Honest!!

Sammi said...

Great post Dawn ;)

Keep spreading this around! and It will be so much more fun to blurf :)

*hugs*

Paper doll said...

Hi Dawn I finaly made it over for a visi. I dont think I have word verification it is a pain in the rear.

Liza said...

Hi Dawn, I have turned mine off too. I agree that it is a total pain but as I'm new to blogging I thought I should have it on as I was a bit wary of spam, but as everyone doesn't really have too much of a problem with it I thought I would take the plunge!

Liza x

craft mad Jenny said...

I'm with you on this one - I don't think that new bloggers really understand it - I didn't at first, so now mine's off. It's just such a pain!

Emma said...

I sort of agree. I don't have it on my personal blogs but with the challenge blog i can't keep up with the blog owners approval so have the word verification instead. In such cases i think it's needed as when i had no approval and no word verification i had a few viruses posted with the 'click here' links. Personally i don't like the word verification (as i often get it wrong!!) but to increase safety to our blogs i'm willing to go with the flow and it wouldn't put me off commenting on anything. xxx

Carole said...

I guess I'm in the minority.

I didn't have word verif. turned on when I first started blogging, but I had some problems so I turned it on. I am sorry to see that I might have more visitors if it was off, but that's life I guess. :-/

As for the music issue, I agree and disagree. I have very calming music at my blog, and I've been told by people who visit that they enjoy it. That said, there are some blogs I don't visit because of their music choices.